Students taunt CSU coach with 'alcoholic' chant after interns in the Laramie university's sports marketing department created fliers highlighting the basketball coach's struggles with sobriety.

Mar. 8, 2013

Colorado State University men's basketball coach Larry Eustachy barks orders during the Wednesday game between CSU and the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyo. Wyoming officials have apologized after students chanted 'alcoholic' at Eustachy during the game. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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This photo posted to Twitter shows a portion of the flyer handed out to University of Wyoming students before the game against CSU on Wednesday. / https://twitter.com/smaestas25/status/309808171768

The filer

In Wednesday’s Border War edition, “The Dirt” produced by University of Wyoming sports marketing interns included the following: • “CSU head coach Larry Eustachy is quite the party animal. During his career as head coach at Iowa State, pictures surfaced of Coach Eustachy partying with and kissing University of Missouri Coeds just hours after his team had lost to the Tigers … Where will Larry party with after tonight’s loss? Maybe the Parlor.” • “Colorado State hopes to make a run in the Mountain West Tournament this season, because next year they will lose nearly half their roster including all five starters and their best bench player. When asked about next season’s prospects, Larry Eustachy pointed out that he prefers to party after losses anyway.” • “All jokes aside, please lock your doors and stay in groups tonight. Larry Eustachy is a horrible person.”

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University of Wyoming officials are apologizing after their students chanted “alcoholic” at CSU men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy during Wednesday night’s game.

The chants followed the distribution of a university-produced flier that highlighted Eustachy’s struggles with alcoholism and urged students to lock their doors while he was in town. The taunts drew widespread condemnation from basketball fans across the country.

“Our athletic director has reached out to (CSU Athletic Director) Jack Graham and told him this in no way represents what we stand for,” Wyoming athletics spokesman Tim Harkins said Friday. “He apologized to Jack, and asked Jack to apologize on his behalf to coach Eustachy. We can’t always control what students do and don’t do during a game. We appreciate their enthusiasm and support, but we don’t condone that type of behavior.”

The handout showed an infamous picture of Eustachy partying with University of Missouri co-eds when he was a coach Iowa State University in 2003. Eustachy is open about his struggles with addiction, and when he was hired by CSU last year he told the Coloradoan he regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Fort Collins.

Harkins said interns in the Wyoming athletics marketing office created the flier, which he said “admittedly did not get properly reviewed.” He said the university is changing how it reviews fliers.

The chants received attention from both ESPN and Sports Illustrated, which ran a story titled “Why Taunting Larry Eustachy isn’t Funny. At all.”

“I’m a firm believer in a higher power that I call God and that this was all structured for a reason,” Eustachy said shortly after he was hired at CSU. “... I think God uses all of us in certain ways. Obviously, I do his work, and he thought it was best that I recognize that I have a condition and that I address it.”

Eustachy’s willingness to talk openly about his own struggles has earned him the respect of many sports fans, who note that taunting opposing coaches is normally part of the game — especially between rivals such as CSU and Wyoming.

Wrote SI’s Andy Glockner: “I can assure you this isn’t the first time this season that Eustachy has been harassed in this fashion. I have been at several other games in person this season where variations of ‘Larry’s thirsty’ and other barbs have been launched at him from opposing student sections. This was the most blatant (and least creative), though.”

Cole Turner, a sophomore at UNLV who helped establish a student spirit group called The Rebellion, said his group used to distribute “chant sheets” similar to Wyoming’s “The Dirt” before games and did extensive research about the backgrounds of visiting players and coaches weeks in advance. Eventually, the fliers and research stopped — Turner said the chants and attacks were becoming too personal.

“The thing about us is that we’ve always tried to stay classy with our cheers. We have gone a little bit into unclassy things and personal attacks before, but it’s always been a select few. It was nothing like (Wyoming students chanting ‘alcoholic’),” Turner said. “For CSU, I know most schools (student sections) have attacked Eustachy. We’ve heard that.

“I don’t know if it’s us trying to show respect (in not attacking Eustachy’s battle with alcoholism), but we don’t want to cross the line.”